6 comments:

Spotted the Tartine book a couple of weeks ago on the shelf at Chapters and was totally absorbed. It's very well put together and the photos are totally inspiring. I think I will order it at the same time as the new Noma book. Nice call on the Vermont apples from the previous posts, it's a shame we can't drum up any interest for the old or odd varieties here. If we could pick-up some of the agricultural pride Vermont has it would be a real boon for both eaters and growers.

Wow, Whygee, that is a tough call. It really depends on your experience with bread and your interest in sourdough. The Tartine book is strictly sourdough, the Lahey book is strictly yeasted, the Hamelman book has both so maybe if you wanted an all-in-one, I would go for that one. You do loose the conversational tone of the others, though. The Lahey book puts quick and easy bread at your fingertips, and the Tartine book has tons of pictures detailing each step in the bread's process. The Hamelman book is more technical, but boy are his methods good. Fewer pictures. No easy answer for that one.Good luck choosing!

My 2¢:the Lahey book is the one that's going to get you out the gate the quickest, and his no-knead method will have you producing amazingly satisfying loaves very quickly--it's also got more of an emphasis on pizza

the Tartine book is definitely the one that we're finding the most inspirational at the moment, and our initial experiments with real levain done according to his method (a method that's very similar to Lahey's, involving a dutch oven) has produced some fantastic loaves--lots of photos, many of them very useful

the Hamelman book is the most comprehensive bread book of the three, and it's one that's beloved by technical bread bakers--it's also the one we've owned the longest and used the most

Judith Herman and Marguerite Shalett Herman, The Cornucopia, Being a Kitchen Entertainment and Cookbook Containing Good Reading and Good Cookery From More Than 500 Years of Recipes, Food Lore &c. as Conceived and Expounded by the Great Chefs & Gourmets of the Old and New Worlds Between the Years 1390 and 1899 Now Compiled and Presented to the Public in a Single Handsome and Convenient Volume